While the prior art includes plethora of patents relating to intermodal loading systems, none are believed to teach, contemplate, or otherwise suggest the present invention as disclosed herein.
Typically, 40 foot intermodal containers, and 20 foot half-sized intermodal containers are loaded into the hold of ships via an overhead crane. Generally, the container is suspended by a relatively long length of cable, making it difficult to position a loaded or unloaded container with precision.
Because it is generally necessary to place a container upon a particular mount or lock-down area, and because it is dangerous and expensive to require a group of workers to manually position a container above the lock-down area, a crane operator is left to having to swing the container into place from a distance, which often causes the container to bang into the ship hold structure, other, already loaded containers, and the like, damaging the loaded container and surrounding containers and structures.
Some examples of patents relating to the loading and/or securing of intermodal containers include:
______________________________________ Patent Number Inventor Date of Issue ______________________________________ 5225728 Oshima 07/06/1993 4018349 Hupkes 04/19/1977 3812987 Watatani 05/28/1974 3807582 Anderson 04/30/1974 3700128 Noble etal 10/24/1972 ______________________________________
As may be discerned by a review of the attached, cited patents, there exists various and diverse systems for automated loading, unloading, and stowage of containers or the like.
For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,018,349, 3,807,582, and 3,812,987 for various container loading/unloading systems for providing automated, controlled positioning of the containers to or from the vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,728 entitled "Non-contact-Guidable Magnetic Floating Device" a device in a completely different class, is an example of the utilization of an oscillating magnetic field positioning system, and is cited for general information.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,128 issued 1972 to General Electric teaches an "Intermodal Transfer System" wherein there is taught an automated system for loading, aligning, and joining an intermodal container to a transfer car via a hoist, utilizing a positioning system for guiding a container upon the transfer car in a precision manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,816 teaches an example of a container lash system, and is provided for general information.
Based upon a review of the above, it appears that the prior art in this area does not suggest or contemplate a system for adjusting the position of a loaded container without the necessity for manual manipulation by workers, a dangerous and comparatively costly proposition.